Archive for March, 2003

Blue

Monday, March 31st, 2003

When you’re upset and you don’t know why, that’s a pretty crappy feeling.

The last few days I seem to have no motivation to do anything, especially school. I thought things would be better today. I was quite cheery this morning, much moreso than most. That faded, though. I wish I knew what was wrong, because then I could sort things out, and be able to be productive again.

This sort of thing always happens at the worst possible time too. I mean, when is it a good time to feel blue? Never, I know, but this always seems to happen towards the end of the semester. It’s the time that I need to care most about being productive, and I always end up caring the least. Last semester it held me back in physics, this semester, I’m not sure what is going to happen.

(car (list ‘Torn ‘Opinion))

Thursday, March 27th, 2003

I don’t understand how I can hate and love a class so much. This is currently happening in not only physics, but programming languages. When I understand what’s going on in lecture for programming langauges, I find it absolutely fascinating. However, Dr.Lumpe sometimes falls off into mumbling, and I get lost for a while.

Last night we were at the computer labs until 3:00 a.m. because of this class. I didn’t get to sleep more than four hours. I have eaten almost nothing since yesterday at lunch. I hate the fact that things don’t work, but at the same time, I love the times where when there is a missing link, that we think out loud. I like building a parse tree and stepping through it with someone. The mutual understanding is wonderful. I like applying myself, but I hate being frustrated. I love the features of Scheme that get shown (functions are first class values), but I hate the uncertainty that comes with programming in a language in which I have almost no formal training or fluency.

I guess it’s just not a win-win situation with this class. All in all, I’m really glad that I’m taking it. It’s challenging me, teaching me new things, and even sparking interest. However, I hate the sheer amount of time and frustration associated with it. I will deal.

We’re starting really, really interesting stuff now. We’re going to learn how to build an interpreter for a language like Pascal. I’m cautiously frightened of the road ahead, and excited to see where it leads.

I must eat.